Highlights from Noise in the Basement

Wowee wow wow wow have I heard some good music, both live and recorded, over the past two weeks.

It all started last week in Baltimore, MD, at the Noise in the Basement confab that brought together some of the country's best indie record stores for an industry pow wow. Kudos to the organizers, Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton, for putting together a great week of meetings, presentations and performances. Once again, I say indie retail is alive and well, it's just in a constant state of change (like the rest of this screwed up world).

Performance highlights included The Pretenders (of course Miss Hynde still has it), Black Kids (one of the most good time bands on the planet today), Tom Morello/The Nightwatchman (a surprisingly enjoyable time plus I love that he has the balls to spread his message and stand behind it), Annuals (this is definitely a band to watch, innovative, artistic and just plain good) and Rachael Yamagata (as amazing a voice as there is in music today).

Saturday night I ventured out to catch an up and coming young band from Auburn, AL, called Hightide Blues. The band's EP "Love Come Easy" has spawned a couple of Reg's Coffee House favorites on the show with listeners calling in and requesting them a good bit. The live show every bit lived up to the appeal of the CD and I hope to catch these guys again soon.

I was also able to catch Brendan James and Ford Turrell as well as Dead Confederate in Birmingham this week. James and Turell are two singer songwriters you need to keep an eye on as they have all the ingredients to make it on the scene. Turrell continues to grow each time I see him perform and his songwriting gets stronger and stronger as witnessed by all the new material he rolled out.

James is a slam dunk if you ask me. At times, he reminded me of a modern day James Taylor, at others Elton John or Billy Joel. His CD, "The Day Is Brave" (Decca) has been a mainstay on Reg's Coffee House for months and will continue to be. What the crowd lacked in size (about 50 people were present) it made up for in energy and enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, I witnessed something I've never seen before. When the set was over, James left the stage and went to the merch booth. Almost everyone in the crowd lined up to meet him and they were all upset he hadn't done an encore. James couldn't believe it so he stopped the autograph session, asked everyone to go back in the venue, lead his band back on stage, and performed two more songs to a gleeful bunch of fans. Moments like this one keep me believing in the power of music.

Dead Confederate is a beautiful explosion, sonic boom meets soothing symphony, one second smashing you upside the head with a two by four al la Sheriff Buford Pusser walking tall all over ya', the next lulling you into a delightful coma where you feel no pain and are left in a euphoric state. The band's music breathes, you can hear it, see it and feel it. Dead Confederate's debut, "Wrecking Ball", (Razor & Tie) is a tempting taste of what is yet to come at its live shows. You must see them perform if they are in a town near you.

Kudos to Rhino Records for the latest batch of Replacements re-issues. "Tim," "Pleased To Meet Me," "Don't Tell A Soul" and "All Shook Down" stand time's test and remind me just how lucky I was to be a kid growing up with the band. The Replacements' records provide a timeline for my youth with these four taking me from high school through college and providing me with the best co-pilot I could get. I implore all the younger generations out there to find The Replacements and change their lives for the better.

Coming out of my speakers right now, the new Ryan Adams and the Cardinals album "Cardinology." I love that every time I write this guy off, he makes me look dumb. You'll be hearing a ton more about this record, I guarantee it.